The arbitration award is final and binding for the parties to the dispute as stipulated in Article 60 of Law Number 30 Year 1999 on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (Arbitration Law). Arbitration decisions cannot be appealed, cassated, or reviewed. However, the arbitration award can be revoked in accordance with Article 70 of the Arbitration Law which states that: Against an arbitral award the parties may file a petition for annulment if the award is alleged to contain the following elements:

1. letters or documents submitted in the examination, after the verdict is rendered, are recognized as false or declared to be false;
2. after the decision is made, a decisive document is found to have been concealed by the opposing party; or
3. The decision was made as a result of deceit by one of the parties to the dispute.

In the event that the elements of Article 70 are found, one of the parties that is aggrieved by the arbitral award may make a request for annulment of the arbitral award through the District Court (Article 72 paragraph 1) but of course it must also pay attention to the provisions as described in Article 59 of the Arbitration Law. The request for annulment of the arbitral award must be submitted in writing within a maximum period of 30 (thirty) days from the day of submission and registration of the arbitral award to the Registrar of the District Court in accordance with the provisions of Article 71 of the Arbitration Law. The request for annulment of the arbitration award must be submitted in accordance with the provisions of Article 1 paragraph 4 of the Arbitration Law which explains that the District Court is the District Court whose jurisdiction covers the residence of the respondent in the arbitration case. For example, if A is the Respondent and B is the Petitioner in an arbitration case, in the event that A wishes to file a petition for annulment of the arbitration award against B, then the provisions as Relative Competence shall be requested to the Chairman of the District Court in the jurisdiction of A as the respondent in the Arbitration case. Regarding the format of the petition for annulment of an arbitral award, it is stipulated in the Supreme Court Technical Guidelines 2007 page 176, which states that:

“A request for annulment of an arbitral award must be filed in the form of a lawsuit (not voluntair) and heard by the Panel of Judges.”

These provisions are indeed contradictory to each other, considering that the law has determined it as a request but the Technical Guidelines determine its submission in the form of a lawsuit. However, since Law Number 30 Year 1999 on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution also does not mention the filing procedure and if it is noted that the annulment of the arbitration award must involve another party, namely the Arbitration Institution that issued the award, then the more specific regulation applies (lex specialis derogate legi generali). Related to the provisions of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law, a petition for judicial review was filed on November 11, 2014 at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia through its decision No. 15/PUU-XII/2014 (“Constitutional Court Decision No. 15/PUU-XII/2014”) which has annulled the explanation of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law. Based on the Constitutional Court Decision No. 15/PUU-XII/2014, the explanation of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law has been declared to have no binding legal force and declared contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Previously, the explanation of Article 70 of the Arbitration Law explained that:

“The grounds for annulment mentioned in this article must be proven by a court decision. If the court declares that the grounds are proven or not proven, then this court decision can be used as a basis for the judge to grant or reject the petition. With the Constitutional Court Decision No. 15/PUU-XII/2014, to prove the existence of the elements referred to in Article 70 of the Arbitration Law does not require a court decision in a criminal case, but it is sufficient to prove before the court the annulment of the arbitration award for the alleged elements stipulated in Article 70 of the Arbitration Law”.

The judge’s decision on the application for annulment of the arbitration award if in his decision one of the parties in the litigation in the annulment of the arbitration award still feels dissatisfied and still feels unfair, one of the parties can appeal to the Supreme Court. The provisions as intended are in accordance with the provisions of Article 72 paragraph .4 and the acceptance of the appeal must go through a series of considerations by the Supreme Court judge for 30 (thirty) days after the appeal is received by the Supreme Court.